Mumbai: With #MeToo movement taking shape in Bollywood, several shocking stories have been coming up.
Amid this, actor Saif Ali Khan recently said no one would dare to mess with his family members.
“It is a very unequal society. I don’t think anyone will misbehave with my people. I don’t know why I feel this but be it my mother or sister or wife, I feel people will not have the guts to do that with them. It might be because they have certain protection around them. So, we have to protect the ladies who don’t have that protection around them or that aura that protects them. We have to make the place safe for the vulnerable ladies,” he said.
His daughter Sara Ali Khan is gearing up for her Bollywood debut.
He urged people to respect everyone and hopes the movement stays in future and does not die down.
Speaking on similar lines, veteran actor Dalip Tahil said that it has always been there. “As far as I can remember, for 40 years in this industry, women and even men, have not had a say,” he said.
He hit the headlines in late October for stating that he recorded a female’s actor’s consent before filming a rape scene for a web series. This he did not for the ongoing #MeToo movement but he has always taken consent, even 25 years ago, he added.
“There was a rape scene, 25 years ago. The director whose name I won’t tae, actually told me that when the scene is being shot, ‘tear the girl’s clothes apart, do this and that, but we won’t tell her’. I flatly refused. I said it was immoral. The girl was new and had to make a living. I called the girl and told her about what the director was planning to do. The director was aghast and almost ran away. The girl was so upset, she burst into tears and ran into a room,” he narrated.
The director later said that Tahil spoiled his day’s work. “What the director was doing was horrible. Of course, he said he didn’t say anything,” Tahil added.
The actor took the responsibility to do the scene but after convincing her and taking her consent. That, however, could not be filmed because the director was in charge of the set’s camera. “In those days, there were no mobile phones, only the raw stock camera, and the director would be in charge. He’d never do it (film her consent), so we got the girl to come out, told her that there would be nothing that wasn’t planned or out of her comfort zone and we did it. For many years after that, I didn’t do such scenes, until now,” he said.
He said it’s time people respect artists’ and women’s rights, and it should be a woman’s call to say how much she will expose, and what she’s comfortable with.
